Cell phones at Sea???? HELP!!

[bstodghi1]

I will be on the Navigator Dec 13th western caribbean itinerary and need to make an important call back home just after midnight . Does anyone know how far out cell phones will work? Or where the ship will at that time, so I can explain to my cell phone company?

 

[kamy]

Well when we went, our phone stopped working after a couple hours that we set sail.However, we did get signal again in Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

 

[Cruzman]

I have had my cell phone work as far out as 30 miles, but that was from on the very top deck of the ship and reception was sketchy. It is possible that your phone might work 7 hours out if the ship skirts the Florida coast and continues on west near the Keys. On the other hand, if the ship ventures further out to sea, as would be required if your first stop is in Labadee, then there is no chance that your cell phone will work 7 hours after you sail.

 

[NDJollyMon]

I'll be on that cruise too!

 

[sailingrose]

Can you e-mail? The ship phones are expensive. I believe about $8.00 a minute.

 

[Cruzman]

Yes, they have an internet cafe aboard; 50 cents per minute, I believe.

 

[jmz]

I was on the navigator 2 weeks ago, our cell phones worked surprisingly alot labadee I agree you wont get a signal, but the other ports we got a signal, and at sea we went to the top deck outside and got a signal, but I wouldnt bank on how strong the signal, when you make a call would be.we went to the Eastern Caribbean

 

[mlzangel78]

PS make sure you call your cell company , and find out what the dialing code is out of country,,, we were on the grand last week, and in cozumel, we get getting a spanish recording, telling us to dial something ( my spanish is rusty) i had sprintpcs, my phone only worked to the bahamas, my fiance had verizon and we only lost signal between grand cayman and cozumel the one day at sea. hope this helps you

 

[jdnkn]

I do not know what port you are sailing from but generally if you are more than 30 miles out from the coast, cellular coverage won't be there. From New Orleans, the coverage is farther than that because there is cellular coverage out to the oil fields.

If the call is that important, have them call you using the $8.95 per minute ship to shore service or you call them on it.

 

[Mmketeer]

Hi,

When we sailed the first week of December on the Mariner for their 1st Western cruise, we had cell service most of the evening sailing out of port. Key West must have a pretty good tower. Also, believe it or not we also had signal in Jamaica. My hubby placed a call from there back to our home in Florida from our chair on our balcony stateroom. We did not check our cell phone for service in Labadee, Grand Cayman or Mexico. But, we did place a call again the last night aboard the ship (day at sea #2) as we knew we would be getting close again to the Key's towers. So, I can say for sure that three of the 7 days on board the ship we were able to call home. We have AT&T, incase you were wondering. We found using the cell to be much more convient then trying to use a pay phone at the ports. For instance, in Jamacia we only saw two phones near the dock (next to the port authority office) and one of the phones was broke. You can imagine what the line looked like for the other one. We even took a $20.00 each way taxi ride to the nearest full service resort (Sandal's Resort and Spa@ Dunn River Falls...I don't reccomend this place) and they didn't even have pay phones...anywhere their property! However, in Jamaica we did see alot of advertising signs for AT&T, which is why we gave our cell phone a shot when we got back onboard the ship. Worked well...no problems with the service. I'll let ya know about the bill though as we do not have free roaming charges.

Hope this helps...Mmketeer